FRESH support from Motorsport Ireland’s Rally Academy has allowed Moira’s William Creighton to upgrade his original four-round campaign in this season’s World Rally Championship to seven.
As reported by Irish News Sport this month, Creighton and team-mate Liam Regan are beginning their adventure in the WRC2 support series at Rally Sweden on the weekend of February 15-18.
Beyond that, their plans remain unclear, although April’s Croatia Rally is a strong contender with August’s Rally Finland – one of the fastest and most iconic fixtures on the calendar – also possible.
Creighton was handed an all-expenses paid, arrive-and-drive package for four events in 2024 along with 200 tyres from Pirelli after winning the FIA Junior World Rally Championship last September.
The original number of outings the 26-year-old was set to make in his M-Sport-run Ford Fiesta Rally2 was four – but that has almost doubled now after Irish motorsport’s governing body stepped in.
“I have worked hard throughout every stage of my career and progressed up the ranks from national level into the Junior WRC,” said Creighton, who was named the World Rally Championship’s Most Improved Driver of 2023 following a public poll in which he secured almost 40 per cent of the total votes.
“Each season up to now has been valuable and my time in the Junior World Rally Championship was incredible – I learned so much about the sport, my driving, about resilience, and attitude. I feel it is a good time in my career to make the full-time transition to compete in a Rally2 Fiesta.
“This will be the most challenging campaign that I have ever had and I have been working very hard over the winter with the Academy to ensure that I am fit and ready to hit the ground running.”
Oliver Solberg and Gus Greensmith both return to WRC2 with Toksport, whilst Yohan Rossel and Nokolay Gryazin are set to fly the flag for Citroen Racing in a brace of C3 Rally2 superminis. Further competition will come from Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet, Marco Bulacia and also Sami Pajari.
To ensure he is in the best possible shape for Sweden, and to get up to speed with his new car, Creighton is making an appearance at a national event, in the same country, just days beforehand.
“To prepare for the high-speed roads found in WRC Sweden, we will be heading to the LBC-Ruschen rally the week before to get seat time and miles under our belts before we start WRC2,” he said.
“The level of competition at the front of WRC2 is extremely high, so I am under no illusion as to the challenge that lies ahead of us.
“The goal is most certainly to build our experience as the year progresses and as I become comfortable with the Fiesta, target the events I have experience of.
“Being part of a world-class team like M-Sport is also very exciting indeed and having collaborated with them for several years in the Junior WRC, I am confident I am in the right hands,” he added.
“It is going to be an incredibly special season with Liam and I cannot wait to get it underway.”